The Korea Institute Graduate Summer Language Study Grant provided me with a precious opportunity to enroll in the academic Korean language program at the recently established Inter-University Center for Korean Language Studies at Sungkyunkwan University. The program targets students who have completed level six of regular language institutes in Korea or equivalent, and aims to provide further studies to build academic vocabulary, develop presentation skills and enhance writing abilities. The content-based instruction culminates in a final presentation at the end of the semester where students would present their own research conducted over the course of the semester.
Although six weeks might appear to be short, it was a fruitful experience in many ways. There were the usual classes on grammar and vocabulary, but sessions on discussing recent news and the weekly presentations on our research offered constant practice and application of academic or technical vocabulary encountered in the course of our research or in class. The course structure allows flexibility and instructors always try to link class material with our research topics. As such, I was able to make use of the program to also consolidate my findings for the purpose of my M.A. thesis.
The program also offered many opportunities to meet with academics in Korea. Having classmates in working in related fields was a definite plus as we exchanged opinions on various topics on top of our research interests. We were also, on many occasions, able to interact with the special lecturers invited by the program, as well as other scholars and graduate students attending the talks. I also made use of my time in Seoul to attend other forums and met with other professors and academics in the field.
I am extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to be part of the IUC Korea program, which came at a time when I was stuck in a bottleneck in terms of Korean language studies. I am now more confident in communicating about academic topics in Korean, and I believe the relationships I have forged here will be important for bridging Korean and Western scholarship in future.